Gigantic Reflects On 2015's Troubles, Looks Ahead To A Bright 2016

It's been a year of ups and downs for Gigantic, Motiga's character-rich arena-brawler. A few weeks ago, the hammer fell, as Motiga laid off several of its staff. Two days ago, Creative Director James Phinney posted a blog piece to explain to some of Gigantic's missteps in 2015 and build excitement for what's to come in 2016.

Phinney, whose previous design credits include Guild Wars and StarCraft, talks about the good and the bad of 2015, from Gigantic's extensive testing, Windows 10 and Xbox one adaptations to the recent layoffs and, most importantly, how Motiga's been unable to hit its intended launch window.

"As a part of these efforts, we joined a select line up of titles slated for both Windows 10 and Xbox One release in 2015… and then we couldn’t get it done. We are close on many fronts, but the fact remains that the game is not as far along as we’d planned for it to be."

While that's disappointing, you have to give the team credit for not rushing an unfinished product out the door, or subjecting players to an endless "early access" period while asking people to pay to test their broken product.

There's still a lot of work to be done on Gigantic, and Phinney's confident it can be completed in 2016. Among the list of intended improvements are better matchmaking, a new map, a guardian rework, and more rewarding player progression. Through it all, the team's guiding vision remains intact: to create "a game of teamwork and player skill, of dynamic action and thoughtful strategy, of fierce combat and joyful movement."